Cyclingnews Fitness Q&A - February 16, 2012

The peloton rolls along during the Tour of Oman's opening stage. (Image credit: ASO)

Topics: Ice baths, Heart rate variation, Seat post slippage, Salt intake

Yesterday, I decided to try something that I have read about that some pro teams (Garmin, to name one) do after races. I filled our bath tub about half full of cold water and knelt in it for about 15 minutes. When done, took a shower. Yesterday watching the Super Bowl, I was tired but never got light headed or had sore legs and felt the same this morning. So I think the soaking my legs in the cold water really helped.

The fancy name for cooling your muscles as you are doing with the cold bath is "cryotherapy" (from "cryo" meaning cold, not what you do when you first lower your body into ice water). There are several methods and reasons for cryotherapy and there is some accumulating evidence for some and against others, so when your buddies tell you that they read that ice-baths "don't work" be sure to ask them specifically what they don't work for.

This is an evolving field with no one best protocol determined yet, but here's what we think we know: Cryotherapy doesn't help with routine "recovery" or mid-event. Cooling muscles makes them weak until they warm up again, so you wouldn't to cool working muscles between closely spaced events. Cooling does help when over-heating is an issue, so cooling other parts of the body as a way to reduce overall body temperature on hot days can support performance. Cryotherapy generally doesn't help with next-day performance unless the prior day's workout was soreness generating, but does reduce next day soreness.

Having said that, 5-15 minutes is probably long enough for any given muscle. One way to achieve the same end without wasting water is to give you an ice-cube massage. Rub your calves and thighs post-ride with an ice-cube at a time, replacing them as they melt. Keep the pressure moderate, enough to make a depression in the skin, but not hard enough to hurt. I've had good results with 2 large ice-cubes per calf and 4 per quad plus hamstring.

Ignore the charts. They are based on population averages and don't take into account people with large, slow-beating hearts or with smaller, fast-beating hearts. There is nothing wrong with a heart rate that rises easily and can be maintained during harder exercise, so long as the heart rate is consistent with the exercise intensity and comes down in a minute or two after you back off exercise intensity.

About two weeks ago, I started to have this pain in the back of my right knee whenever I’d do gluteal extensions (cuff around ankle attached to weights, leg bent and moving leg back). It was this exercise and not the leg curls I was doing that seemed to cause this sensation, although I will admit that towards the end of the last few reps of the leg curls there was some pain, whereas with the glutes it was there from the start, but only the right knee.

When I noticed it and raised the saddle back up (tape marked the proper height fyi) the pain subsided. So the other day I was able to free the S5 from its winter trainer prison and go for a 50 mile ride. It felt like my legs were almost slapping my chest, well not quite, but that feeling. I didn’t have any hip pain, but it got me wondering about my saddle height, etc. I rang up the shop and got the measurement for the seat mast/ saddle height and lo and behold it had slipped something like 3 or 4 cm! I readjusted it and noticed a big improvement on the trainer this past weekend.

The saltiness of sweat and the requirement for salt vary tremendously from athlete to athlete so I can't say if the diluted Sponsor is giving you adequate salt to replace what you seat away during the ride, but it is doubtful. The concentration of sodium in sweat is typically around 0.9grams per liter, or 0.09%. Your Sponsor drink is a little less concentrated than that when consumed full strength, and roughly half that the way you are diluting it. So, assuming you are just replacing the fluids lost during sweating, it is very likely than you are seating away more salt than you are consuming in that drink.

This doesn't mean you necessarily need to consume more salt than riding however. You need to keep the concentration of salt in your body in a narrow range to maintain normal function, but the range does have enough width that if you are eating enough salt over the course of a day, it doesn't matter so much how it is distributed unless you are doing very long rides. That is, if you get enough salt in your off-bike food to replace what you lose on the bike each day, you don't need to worry about replacing salt while you are riding.

The exception to the above rule is if you are riding long enough in hot enough weather to become salt depleted, you'll need more salt during rides. You'd know if you were becoming salt depleted because you'd have symptoms of low blood pressure, the most obvious of which is lightheadedness on standing up after rides. If you do find yourself getting light-headed on standing after rides, take more salt on your rides, either in the form of saltier drink, or adding some salty food to the mix.

Scott Saifer (www.wenzelcoaching.com) is head coach, CEO of Wenzel Coaching.com and has been coaching cyclists professionally for 18 years. He combines a master's degree in Exercise Physiology with experience in 20 years of touring and racing and over 300 road, track and MTB races to deliver training plans and advice that are both rigorously scientific and compatible with the real world of bike racing.

Steve Hogg has owned and operated Pedal Pushers since 1986, a cycle shop specialising in rider positioning and custom bicycles. In that time he has positioned riders from all cycling disciplines and of all levels of ability with every concievable cycling problem. Clients range from recreational riders and riders with disabilities to World and National champions. He can be reached at: www.stevehoggbikefitting.com

Carrie Cheadle, MA (www.carriecheadle.com) is a Sports Psychology consultant who has dedicated her career to helping athletes of all ages and abilities perform to their potential. Carrie specialises in working with cyclists, in disciplines ranging from track racing to mountain biking. She holds a bachelors degree in Psychology from Sonoma State University as well as a masters degree in Sport Psychology from John F. Kennedy University.